SOURCE: “Clement: The New Song of the Logos,” in Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria, University of California Press, 1992, pp. 183-234.

In the following excerpt, Dawson describes Justin of Flavia Neapolis's method of interpreting allegorically the word of God in Biblical and non-Biblical texts, and contends that Clement applied Justin's ideas in his own reading.

Like Valentinus, Clement (Titus Flavius Clemens) was an independent Christian intellectual and teacher in second-century Alexandria. He was born around 150 c.e. of pagan parents, probably in Athens. Following a topos of Hellenistic intellectual autobiography, he tells us that after travels to Italy, Syria, and Palestine in search of teachers, he finally discovered the finest teacher of all in Egypt.¹ Upon arriving in Alexandria around 180 c.e., Clement began a vigorous teaching and writing career in the city that lasted until 202/203 c.e., when the violent persecution of Christians by the...